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Service Learning Projects and Ideas

Join projects/programs organized by local governments and community organizations

Contact a local preservation organization to identify projects for which it could use volunteer help

Become a junior docent at a local historic site

Volunteer to help lead tours of local historic places

Volunteer to paint, whitewash, stucco, or work on minor repairs during a historic building restoration or any other preservation project

Work with a local preservation or history organization to help publicize information about local historic places

Assist with archaeological digs at historic or prehistoric sites

Construct handicap access trails in local or state historic parks

Maintain a CCC-constructed trail in a state park

Clean up or repair neglected buildings listed in local or state registers or the National Register of Historic Places

Construct exhibits at a local historic house or other historic building

Volunteer/become appointed as youth members of local historic preservation commissions

Help a local library or local historic site with their local history collections. Help them to organize maps, photos, newspapers clipping collections, books, and other publications

Help design, create, maintain, or update website for a local history or preservation organization or a local house museum

Volunteer to conduct needed research for historic properties, such as title searches at the county courthouse

Volunteer to plant trees and help with other landscaping activities at a local historic site, library, museum, or cemetery

Offer to clean up a local historic cemetery and/or clean the headstones

Order Veteran’s Affairs replacement headstones for a historic cemetery where veterans are buried

Volunteer to care for farm animals at a local historic site or local historic farm

Testify at public hearings, city council meetings and/or state legislatures, to advocate for historic preservation projects

Create tee-shirts or mugs with historic sayings on them or hold an in-school music concert to assist with fundraising for a local historic site or preservation project

Create a documentary film about a local history topic or a current historic preservation project and donate the film to the local historic society or a local museum

Help transcribe letters, diaries, or scan photographs from your local historic society or museum

Organize individual or class projects to benefitthe local community

Write letters to advocate for the preservation of an important historic or cultural site

Conduct interviews and collect oral histories of local veterans of any war and donate the tapes and transcripts to the local library or historical society

Conduct interviews at local nursing homes about residents’ lives and donate the tapes and transcripts to the local historical society

Conduct an oral history of a teacher that may soon retire; submit oral history to the school library and the community library

Write articles about historic places, events, and people for the local paper

Create walking or driving tours of historic places in the community and submit them to the local historical society or chamber of commerce; create a website to further publicize these places

Research information to help complete a National Register of Historic Places nomination

Research and write a local cultural journal to document unique historical aspects of the local community

Create a photographic project documenting the transformation of a local historic area (ex. A building, park, town, Main Street); donate the project to the local library or historical society

Research the school’s physical building: how has it changed over time and why? Create an exhibit to display in the school’s lobby or to display in the local town hall

Write songs and poems about local history and historic places and create an original CD; distribute the CD at local community events

Create a podcast about your area’s local history or about an individual local historic site; inform local historic preservation offices, local historic societies, and local museums about the podcast and encourage them to use it at their organization

Research/collect traditional local food recipes and identify historic places (restaurants, county fairs) where these foods have been served; create cookbooks with the recipes, photographs, and stories about the places and cultures identified with the recipes. Donate the cookbooks to the local historical society, but also consider persuading the historical society, chamber of commerce, and restaurants to use them as a fund-raiser to preserve places associated with community foodways

Design a plaque or monument to dedicate to the town or the first inhabitants; propose the implementation of this plaque or monument at a local town meeting

Identify the American Indian tribe or tribes that originally inhabited the area where their community is located and, in consultation with representatives of the original tribes that still live in the local area, create interpretive historic panels documenting the tribes’ histories; arrange to have panels displayed somewhere in your local community

Contact the National Trust for Historic Preservation and determine if your community is eligible for the “Main Street” commercial district revitalization program; provide information to the local government and chamber of commerce

Brainstorm ideas about how the community might better promote local historic sites and tourism; present these ideas to the local historical society and chamber of commerce.